Kaieji, Historic Buddhist temple ruins in Sennan, Japan.
Kaieji is the site of a 7th-century Buddhist temple in Sennan, Osaka, within the grounds of Ichioka Shrine. Excavations revealed a Hōryū-ji-style layout with a Kondō to the east and a pagoda to the west, surrounded by a cloister, plus a Lecture Hall. The Kondō foundations now lie beneath the shrine's main hall, and the cloister pillars have been reconstructed.
The temple was built in the latter half of the 7th century, as shown by the Hōryū-ji-style layout with the Kondō east and the pagoda west of the cloister. It survived into the Muromachi period, but no documentary record of it remains, and the name Kaie-ji comes from a modern local place name.
The name "Kaie-ji" appears only in early modern local gazetteers; the temple's original name is unknown. The Kondō foundation now lies beneath the honden of Ichioka Shrine, so the shrine and ruins share one precinct.
The ruins lie on a stepped hill about 20 metres high, mostly within the grounds of Ichioka Shrine, whose main hall stands on the temple's former kondō site. Reach it on foot in 25 minutes from Okadaura Station on the Nankai Main Line, in 20 minutes from Shinge Station on the Hanwa Line, or by taxi about 10 minutes from Rinku Town Station. The reconstructed cloister shows the original pillar positions.
The temple's name is not original: "Kaie-ji" comes from a modern local place name, and no document records the temple's actual name. The 302 excavated objects, including roof tiles, statue fragments and metal decorations, were designated National Important Cultural Properties in 1995.
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